Written and directed by Brett Morgen
Roadside Attractions
Rated R: for language and brief sexual images
Review by Laura Hawbaker
“The jury is asked to disregard the kiss thrown by defendant Hoffman.”
It sounds like a line from a late-night comedy sketch. However, as illustrated in Brett Morgen’s documentary, “Chicago 10,” it was Judge Julius Hoffman who uttered this bit of comical dialogue nearly forty years ago during the wildly publicized 1969 trial of eight activists accused of conspiracy and inciting to riot (“How do you ‘incite to riot?” ponders defendant Abbie Hoffman). The “10” in the film’s title includes the two defense attorneys, who were also tried for contempt of court. The trial came after the infamous stand off between anti-war protestors and Chicago police at the 1968 Democratic Convention, in which former Mayor Daley gave his infamous “shoot to kill” order and the city was virtually under military rule. Battalions of police clashed with thousands of hippies, Yippies and Mobes; tear gas, tanks and batons were used to subdue tumultuous marches, turning downtown Chicago into a war zone.
Heavy stuff.
On the other side of the coin is the resulting trial. It was a hilarious, chaotic farce in which a young generation of misfits sought to undermine the establishment’s pomp and circumstance. Paper planes. Erotic poetry. The courtroom was a pageant of tomfoolery. The defendant’s names are writ in history: Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale. Director Brett Morgen brings these historic boho characters to life using archival footage and animation, with mixed results.
The subject matter is gripping, the conflicts are universal: a young generation’s revolution, the pursuit of liberty in the face of oppression, violence begetting violence. Morgen’s clear agenda is to spin the 1968 events in hopes of arousing political revolution in today’s lackadaisical youth. The eight defendants (particularly the film’s star, Abbie Hoffman) are relatable to today’s twenty-something; with their un-kept hair, thick-framed glasses, and jokester attitudes, they could pass for modern hipsters. Morgen utilizes contemporary music from Rage Against the Machine and the Beastie Boys to help generation Y “connect” with the hippies and their plight. In one of the film’s most heavy-handed moments, the line “Fuck Bush ‘till they bring our troops home,” from Eminem’s “Mosh” blares just as the ’68 protesters begin their pivotal 4th day march.
Morgen made a gutsy call. Because there is no footage of the actual 1969 Chicago Eight trial, Morgen recreates it using animation and voice actors. Some famous names lent their voices (Hank Azaria, Leiv Schreiber, Nick Nolte, and Mark Ruffalo, to name just a few). The animation (produced by Curious Pictures) is supposed to be reminiscent of “Waking Life” and “A Scanner Darkly,” but calls to mind old computer games like “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiago?” instead. It is cheap looking. The characters’ movements are jerky and cumbersome, and overall, the animation serves mostly as a distraction from the poignancy of the film. This is most evident in a climactic band shell scene just before the bloody Hilton Hotel showdown on Michigan Avenue. Morgen decides to superimpose animated characters against archival footage of the crowd with disastrous results. Ouch.
I watched this film in Chicago (still ruled by a Mayor Daley) just weeks before the five-year anniversary of the city’s 10,000 strong anti-Iraq war protest, which shut down Lake Shore Drive on March 20th, 2003 and ended in hundreds of arrests. Perhaps Morgen—who seems to believe that America’s youth are politically apathetic and only inspired by visual stimuli (ahem, animation)—should give the new generation a little credit. With forty years of retrospect, we’ve gained some wisdom from the events of ’68 and ’69. The hippies’ controversial tactics did not end the war in Vietnam; it raged for another seven years. The police did not quiet the protesters with brutality, but actually fed their cause. Perhaps, if both sides had not come to Chicago expecting violence, no violence would’ve happened.
It’s amazing that Hollywood has not yet capitalized on the high conflict entertainment value of these true events… oh, wait. Steven Spielberg plans to film a big-screen blockbuster of the Chicago Eight trial.
It was only a matter of time.
